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Dinner:Impossible Meal at Walt Disney World!

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Dinner:Impossible Production Sign

After walking out of the Disney “Give A Day, Get A Disney Day” announcement event on Thursday, I saw none other than Chef Robert Irvine running through World Showcase with a team of volunteers behind him! I quickly realized that he was taping Dinner:Impossible! for the Food Network…and that I was going to be attending that dinner!

Scroll to the bottom of the page to read more about the “Give A Day” program and how you can be a part of it; in the meantime, let’s get on to the food…

Chef Irvine Plots With His Volunteers

Dinner Prep
Chef Irvine and his volunteers were preceded around the the World Showcase by an advance team who were tasked with finding the next individual the Chef would be speaking with, and setting up the shot. For instance, in Epcot’s Germany pavilion, the advance team set up a shot where Chef Irvine learned from Snow White what one of his main ingredients would be!

From there, the Chef and his volunteers took off running again — after all, he only had a few hours to cook dinner for hundreds.

Dinner:Impossible Advance Team

Chef Irvine and Team Run to the Next Shot

For the hours of cooking Chef Irvine and his trusted sous chefs were about to endure, Disney had set up a show kitchen in front of World Showcase. Guests to the Epcot theme park were welcomed to watch as the show taping started heating up! I hung around for a good chunk of the day, snapping photos and trying to figure out what my meal was going to include. All I could figure out was that we were going to be eating a lot of apples…

One interesting thing I noticed is that the proceedings in the kitchen were pretty quiet. Lots of chopping, and seasoning, and sauteing in a giant wok being heated over a…garbage can, but no yelling. No angry Chef Irvine shouting in frustration that there are only 3 dishes done with only 20 minutes left. Maybe there was another kitchen somewhere where those things were happening. It’s not a Dinner:Impossible! show without them! My fingers are crossed that somebody got angry somewhere, or it might not be worth watching.

Dinner Impossible Waiver

Chef Irvine Instructs a Sous Chef in the Show Kitchen

The Dinner
After much running around by Chef Irvine and his sous chefs, it was finally time for those at the event to start digging in! Now, here’s the saddest part of my story — I’m pretty sure I didn’t get to eat Chef Irvine’s cooking. Word is that his handiwork was served only to the Give a Day Get a Day volunteers, who’d won trips to Disney World to celebrate their donations.

Alas, I’m still going to tell you all about the dinner WE, as members of the media, were served, because it was still delicious — thanks, Disney!

The event was held outside — on the bridge between the Fountain of Nations in Future World and the World Showcase Lagoon, and there were several stations set up where guests could collect appetizer-sized portions of the dishes.

Servers were also circulating with many of the dishes — primarily desserts — in case you couldn’t break away from a conversation to get over to the main serving areas. There were quite a few tables set up within the event space, along with cocktail tables bearing the Celebrate Volunteers! logo and canned goods theme. And, finally, at long last, here’s the event and the menu!

Overall, the event was incredible and the food was delicious. My favorites were the braised short ribs, the chicken fried rice, and the brownie torte, though I could easily have eaten a few more of those cheesecake push ups! And the event was capped off with a very cool performance by Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas — they sang their new duet, “Make a Wave!”

I’ve heard that the Dinner:Impossible! show will air sometime in April (NOTE: The Show is airing on June 2nd on the Food Network!).

More About Disney’s “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day” Program
This was part of a week-long series of events promoting what I believe to be one of the most game-changing Corporate/Non-Profit partnerships in the history of philanthropy. Disney’s “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day” volunteer program aims to encourage 1 million people to volunteer one day of service at a local nonprofit in exchange for one free day in a Disney park. To date, Disney’s already hit the 600,000 person mark…and that’s in just six weeks. I’m guessing they’ll hit their 1 million person goal in no time flat.

You can learn more about how YOU can trade a day of volunteering in your community for a free Disney parks ticket — including screen shots of how to sign up — right here in our “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day” primer!

Please Note: Author received complementary transportation, accommodations, and event entry for this event.

What an awesome experience! I love Dinner: Impossible (as someone who is culinarily challenged, it’s like watching a good science fiction program!), and have always thought Chef Irvine would be kind of an interesting guy to meet.

The food all looks amazing – we need smell-o-vision out here on the web!

Anna — It was an incredible thing to see. And Chef Irvine was so nice — even though he was running around trying to make dinner for hundreds in just a few hours, he was smiling and joking around. Didn’t seem stressed at all when I met him!

TraciLeigh — Me too! It was a fantastic event. Disney does great work, eh?

AJ thank you so much for capturing the event. Thanks to the kids, we missed out on taking a lot of the photos. Now I can point all of my friends/family here to check everything out before the episode airs in April.

Oh my gosh that is so darn cool. Very jealous! That food looks delicious and I would have had a hard time not trying everything. I love Dinner Impossible and can’t wait to see this on Food Network. Great post by the way, you really captured it all.

I just ate dinner, but now these photos have made me hungry again! The food all looks wonderful and such interesting presentation. I think I could have made a meal of the desserts alone, but it all looks good. How cool that you got to participate in this!

Oh no! Matt, don’t break my heart! I know that the volunteer families were in a separate area for the filming portion of the event, but I sincerely thought we were all eating the same stuff. Ah well; if that’s the case, kudos to Disney catering for a wonderful meal!

I didn’t catch the details about the fabulously yummy food served at this event so it was especially awesome to discover them through this fabulous post! While, I didn’t get to meet Chef Irvine, I sure was lucky enough to get to meet you! Love this blog!!

The food we had that night was delicious, but I realized now that we missed out on some real good stuff, especially the dessert. Thanks for the photos and details about what went on behind the scenes to create our meal.

I was there that day as well, not participating in the volunteer event though. I heard one of the Jonas brothers was in epcot that day as well. When I went over by the filming I was brought up on stage! just about where the picture below the waiver was taken! And I could hear Robert yelling to the other chefs about the dishes. I was also maybe 5 feet away from him, but when I was not on the stage, I couldn’t hear the yelling. Can’t wait to see the episode!

I am sorry we didn’t get to meet at the event. The root veggie pie was out of this world, despite the fact that it was COLD! If you get an update on when the episode will air, please let me know. Thanks!

Thanks for sharing this wonderful opportunity you had with us. The food looked amazing, but there were 2 items that looked vaguely familiar. When I attended the D23 One Year Anniversary Event in the Magic Kingdom on March 5th, part of our agenda was a dessert party served in Fantasyland. We were served the canollis in the same little cups and the warm chocolate torte. I’ll have to send you the pictures. So, not sure if Chef Irvine’s group made those.

Mary Jo — I’m hoping against hope that Chef Irvine made our food, too, but if not, it was still a lovely event with incredible food! I think I’ve seen the pics of the canoli and torte from the D23 event — was it as wonderful as it looked?! You’re so lucky to have had the chance to go!

We were honored to have been chosen a volunteering family from North Carolina and attended this event. The food was as awesome as the entertainment and hospitality. Our family will never forget the entire week.

I am so lucky that I got to be a participant of this event! I LOVED most of the food (mushroom pie was nasty but the cheesecake pops were the MOST AMAZING THING EVER) and I can not wait to find out if any of us were seen while he was running around the park! If anyone hears someone scream I LOVE YOU CHEF then that was totally me because i screamed like a 13 year old seeing the JoBros!

UGGHHH!!! I WAS THERE!!! AND I DIDN’T KNOW IT!!! I saw Belle and the people from France with their baskets but didn’t think to ask what was going on! I AM SO MAD AT MYSELF!!! (True, I was only there in the morning. But still.) THE NIGHT BEFORE, I WATCHED ILLUMINATIONS FROM WHERE THEIR KITCHEN WAS SET UP!!!!!!!!!

I was so happy when I came across your pictures. I did not get a chance to take pictures of all of the food. We were honored to be part of this amazing event. My family and I had the time of our lives. The food was excellent and the presentation was amazing. We are still talking about it! My favorite dish was the Main Lobster and Atlantic Seafood Fisherman’s Pie. Is the recipe available? I would love to try to recreate this at home. Also, where can I buy the plasticwear that dishes, such as the cheesecake pops and the cannolis were served in? Thank you!

Trackbacks

[…] This episode of Dinner: Impossible is slated to debut sometime in April. Let’s see…did I leave anything out? Hmmm…. Oh…you want to see the food you say! =) My dear friend AJ over at The Disney Food Blog did a magnificent post with photos of all of the dishes that were served that evening. I suggest you check it out … Dinner:Impossible Meal at Walt Disney World. […]